Penny Should Be Eliminated Essay

The United States’ penny has been around for over 200 years, an iconic piece of the country’s history. Along with its design, the penny’s value has changed throughout these years, making the one-cent piece of less worth to this day. Since the penny’s value has declined so much, people have been inquiring whether or not the penny should still exist. The penny should be eliminated because it costs more in both money and time to make them nowadays than they’re really worth. Elimination of the penny will save money for both the government and American citizens.

The penny is a costly item to make--more than its one-cent value. A letter to the editor by David R. Carroll states, “A penny currently costs the United States government 2.4 cents to mint.”

Two and four-tenths cents may not seem like much at first, but as it adds up, the production of pennies leads to a great loss for the U.S. Treasury. In fact, the Treasury loses “more than $100 million per year on the coin’s production” (National Review). This money could and should be going towards something besides such a small coin, but instead it’s being used to produce more than 4 billion of these one-cent coins per year. The high production rate is the people’s fault, as well, since so many people don’t pay attention to their pennies and lose them easily. With so many people losing their pennies, the U.S. Mint has to produce more and more pennies each year.
In addition to a waste of money, these coins are a waste of time.

Finding lost pennies, searching through a wallet for the remaining 4 cents in a $2.96 candy bar, and even cashiers who have to count change for customers take time for these coins. It doesn’t seem like much time would be lost just from counting pennies, but an article from the National Review remarks that “each of us on average wastes 2.4 hours per year” from them. Given the average wage per hour, this adds up to losing around $50 per year, just from counting pennies. Washington Middle School has a Penny Drive for Charity annually to help those in need, but having to find all the lost pennies in one’s house is not a great use of their time. Dollar bills are much easier to keep in a safe place and find, so donating bills would be much easier and less of a waste of

time.
Many people believe that the loss of the penny would lead to escalating prices, since all the $29.96 and $5.99 prices would be rounded to the nearest nickel.

However, business owners should be thinking about their consumers. If a business owner wanted more customers, they would round the prices down to the nearest nickel, not up. Money would be saved for consumers from the rounded prices, not lost. Say the prices were rounded against consumers, so that $29.96 would be rounded up to $30.00 after eliminating the penny. The customer would generally lose 2.5 cents with each newly bought item. The article from the National Review did the math, and found that “If someone engages in two such transactions per day, over a year they would lose $18.25 compared with the person given their pennies.” This amount is much less than the average amount lost from time counting pennies, which is $50. In any way, eliminating the penny would result in saving money, not losing it from rounded

prices.
In conclusion, the penny should be eliminated if people want to save time and money. It may be an iconic coin for American history, but it has caused a great loss for both the Treasury and the people. The penny is not as much of a practical coin as it was around a hundred years ago, when it could buy as much as a quarter would today. Eliminating the penny will have a positive effect on the economy of the United States.